LIVE / WORK

New York, NY

born / raised

1988, Taiwan

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Taiwan, WU Chia Yun 吳家昀 is an artist and filmmaker based in New York City. She holds an MA in Visual Communication from the Royal College of Art (UK) and an MFA in Motion Picture from the National Taiwan University of Arts (TW). Her works have been internationally exhibited at Art Basel (HK), Institute of Contemporary Arts (UK), Royal Scottish Academy (UK), Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea (PT), BilbaoArte Fundazioa (ES) and more. Solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art (TW) and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (TW). She has participated in artist residencies granted by Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CA) and Lithuanian Photographers Association (LT). She is the recipient of the Director’s Fellowship from the International Center of Photography (USA).

Artist Statement

The central themes in my work are about freedom, the sense of belonging, and nothingness. I have been making fiction films to narrate subtle life stories, applying cinematic language to experiment with moving images, mixed media, and photography. In this manner, I explore the spirits within the materials that unveil the essence of things and their connection with human states. My work has expanded from film to installation to conceptual art, representing how politics and the outer world affect me as a person while responding to the inherent question of existence.

Through transforming the concept of the filmmaking process, my work seeks to materialize image and sound into physical installations and extend time into travelable spaces. I consider my practice as a mise-en-scène of a director’s arrangement of everything that appears in the framing of a film. Alongside the expansion of cinema, I incorporate printmaking, drawing, and image-transfer techniques in order to create layered experiences in my lens-based works, reflecting a nomadic state of self-identity within the context of family, homeland, and the world.